Memory Lane: Traveling through time on Google maps

MOUNTAIN VIEW — Google is now offering trips down memory lane on its digital maps.

The new twist on time travel is debuting Wednesday as part of the “Street View” feature in Google’s maps, a navigational tool that attracts more than 1 billion visitors each month.

The Street View snapshots will now include an option to see what neighborhoods and landmarks looked like at different periods during the past seven years, as Google Inc. has been dispatching camera-toting cars to take street-level pictures for its maps.

Although the photos only date back to 2007, some of them illustrate dramatic changes, such as the gradual recovery of New Orleans neighborhoods in the years following Hurricane Katrina’s devastation. Scrolling over to Washington D.C. offers a look at the restoration of the historic Howard Theatre.